Friday, December 01, 2006

"Hi. I'm Brian from Dish Network!"

Oh Brian, I bet you have no idea how much I wanted to get my hands around your little automated neck and twist it until you screamed "God Help Me!"

I have been bombarded with automated sales calls from "...Brian, from Dish Network!" A lot of these automated calls give you an option to press a number to be removed from their calling list. Brian didn't give me that option. And today he hit me at the wrong time. I pressed #1 so I could talk to a live representative. After acknowledging that the person I would be talking to is just doing their job, I was going to leave a message for Brian that might cause me to have someone knocking on my door from the federal communication authorities. (It would have been worth it.)

Fortunately for the 'live representative', it was at this point where I was given an option to press #2 to be removed from their call list. Normally, I would have pressed 2 and hung up immediately in anger... but this time my hunch said to stay on the line to see if there was a message. There was. I had to leave a message consisting of my phone number. (DOH) Okay, so I'm not the sharpest crayon in the box, but I am still colorful. Right?

If I ever find myself in a postion to get some kind of extended TV service, you can bet good money it will not be for a DISH. I sometimes vote that way, too. If there is a position (or candidates) that I don't have an opinion on, I may vote for the 'other one' based on how much I am harrassed by automated phone calls.

I'm exposing my ignorance here so that if you are like me and have pressed a number to be removed from a call list and then hung up immediately, next time be sure to stay on the line long enough to find out if there is anything else you need to do.

I hope I don't meet anyone named Brian in the near future. I might not give myself a chance to like them.

4 comments:

cat's momma said...

I feel your irritation! These calls drive me nuts. As soon as I moved here I went on line to put us on the do not call list...which is just now taking effect. I've resorted to calling the number back to tell them STOP CALLING! Not that it worked. But I can now tell the calls have just about ceased.

Anonymous said...

Good advice - I've not had an automated call yet but do find when I'm in during the day I get a fair few offers of double glazing and a man came to the door earlier asking if we'd be interested in a new kitchen or bathroom...

Which to be honest I might be interested in at some point but I'd be more inclined to get one from someone I'd looked up and received quotes from rather than the bloke on my doorstep in the dark.

How's the Amarylis?

Anonymous said...

Sorry - was just picking on my wee brother earlier for his spelling too!

The Crusty Crone said...

Well... I'm a horrible speller. And I'm not above using fawnetics that just have to be said out loud to have a chance at being deciphered. Luckily for me, my spelling errors are actually typos in disguise.